Task 3: The Most Hated Family in America

‘The most hated family in America’ is a 2007 Expository documentary film written and presented by Louis Theroux about the family at the core of the Westboro Baptist Church. The organization is led by Fred Phelps and located in Topeka, Kansas. Westboro Baptist Church members believe that the United States government is immoral due to its tolerance of homosexuality; in addition, they protest at funerals of U.S. military killed in action with signs that display text such as "God Hates Fags" and "Thank God for Dead Soldiers".

1. Louis Theroux is an interactive documentary filmmaker. There are few codes and conventions that show this; such as the fact Louis ‘joins in’ with the families activities like joining them at church and attending their protests although the family sometimes offends Theroux about his religion. The interviews Louis has the family members are very informal and on the spot and open answered questions. Another code and convention of this is that Louis is always visible to the audience.

2. There are a few main subjects in the documentary; the main subject shown most on screen is Fred Phelps’ daughter Shirley; she interacts most with Louis and answers most of Louis’ questions. Then there is Fred Phelps; he isn’t shown on screen as much as Shirley but his conversations with Louis seem controversial in what he says. Another main subject is Steve Drain, Steve joined the church in 2001; the former filmmaker was making a documentary when he decided to move his family to Kansas and joined Westboro.

3. There are many themes and issues raised during the documentary. The church is noted for its anti-homosexual speeches, and runs numerous web sites such as GodHatesFags.com, GodHatesAmerica.com, and others expressing condemnation of homosexuality. There are also political issues within the documentary; such as the picketing at soldier’s funerals which have caused a huge amount of controversy worldwide. 

 4. The crew is very small and consists of Louis Theroux, a cameraman and a soundman. I think that this is because they didn’t want to disturb the naturalness of the family’s daily lives. I also think this was because they didn't want to draw anymore attention to the filming than they already had as the family could have been putting on an act. 

5. In this documentary there are many codes and conventions; such as Louis interacts with the family and joins in with their day-to-day lives. He also observes the subjects while they picket on the street. In some ways Louis try’s and provokes a response from the people he interviews, he asks difficult questions in which they usually do not answer. Fred Phelps is a prime example; when Louis asks about how many children he has, Fred asks to move on to the next question and then refuses to ask any more questions. Louis does break the boundaries of documentary by not sticking to one mode and taking elements of different modes to make his documentary.

6. Louis has one-to-one interviews with the family members to get their opinions on

their own, his interview techniques are to ask personal questions. The interviews are also informal, Louis does this because he wants to get their answers from their heart and not what he thinks are being put into the family heads. While asking his questions like this, the family gets very defensive towards the questions which causes the audience and Louis to think ‘do they really believe what they believe, or have they been brainwashed’.

7. Louis’s main objectives during filming this documentary were to understand the family, their views and values, maybe expose the truth of the family and maybe the little humanity within the church.  He wants to provoke the audience and cause debates from them while watching Louis wanted to question things during the documentary, such as if Fred Phelps was brainwashing his family into behaving a certain way and thinking there was only one way; the church’s way. He wanted the audience to be shocked by what they were saying. Louis also wanted to create good television, as an audience we like to watch things that will cause controversy.

8. I would describe this documentary as extremely provocative and controversial yet effective in the way it was meant to, it gets the audience talking. I think Louis was a good film-maker for this documentary as he was open minded while interacting with the family, he didn’t try and argue with the family or make his

view seem the better one, he took time to hear the families point of view of why they do what they do, and their opinions. Louis manages to keep a level, unbiased opinion; even when the family say things that may offend him, of the family despite their extremism, accompanying them on protests and seeing their whole belief “system” for what it is.

Task 5: TV News Broadcast Analysis

Task 5: TV News Broadcast Analysis (Clip and Presentation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayaPoHHVY-c

http://prezi.com/ip910h2dw7zi/tv-news-broadcast-analysis/

Task 4: Codes and Conventions of TV News Broadcasts

There are many codes and conventions that make a TV News Broadcast that make us recognise it is a news broadcast.

• The studio news readers. They are the first thing you will see on the screen, they broadcast the news. They research the news they are going to read and script their own bulletins. News readers have a specific way they dress to help the audience know who they are for example Jon Snow and Krishnan Guru - Murthy from Channel 4 News wear suits and ties. This convention is important because it makes the audience believe the news they are reading more; it makes them appear more trustworthy to the audience if they dress smarter. 

• The field reporters are like studio reporters but they report live from the scene of the news story. They are usually the first ones on the scene to get first look on the story. Field Reporters are important to a news broadcast so the audience can see whats going on at the time, at that place and get a more in depth understanding of the story.

• Links to the studio. A link to the studio is when one live studio cuts to another live studio possibly across the world. If the link is to another studio in the same country, the reporter is usually seen in front of a backdrop with a camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD31Ik7XnVM

• Mode of Address. This is how the reporter addresses the audience; it sets the mood and tone and is usually authoritative. Reporters use personal language such as 'Thank you for watching'.
• A Medium Close Up shot is always used to create a personal link with the audience.
• Title sequence are fast pace to catch the audiences attention. Dramatic music adds importance.

• Contributors. There are a few different contributors including Experts; they make the story seem more real and make the story more believable to the audience. 
• Witnesses; A witness is classed as someone who was present at the event at the exact time.
• Members of the Public; Members of the Public are important contributors as they give opinions and make the story more believable.

• Actuality Footage. Actuality Footage is used in stories to help the audience understand what is happening in the story, used in other countries where War/Riots are happening for example. This makes the story more believable to the audience.

• Report Structure. Reporters have to keep their audience interested and keep their attention for as long as possible, the important news is always reported on first to keep the audience watching. 
• Reports often feature a combination of the following conventions:
• Piece to camera
• Cut aways 
• Voice Overs
• Interviews 
• Vox Pops (voice of the people)
• Graphics

Task 2: What is a Documentary?

A documentary is a piece of film broadcast as a film or a television programme presenting facts; these could be political, social or historical. Documentaries have become known to shock the audience with information usually accompanied by narration from the film maker.

The purpose of a documentary is to give the audience information about a subject. The purpose of a documentary differs from film to film or depending on the filmmaker. Some filmmakers attempt to change society in some way, nature documentaries do this by talking about Global Warming. Other filmmakers aim is to delight the audience in someway, they usually let the audience make their own judgement; these kind of documentaries include human stories.

In a documentary you expect to see different codes and conventions depending on the film. In most documentaries you will see a filmmaker following the subject, the filmmaker usually provides a narration to go with the film. You may also see footage of the subject for example if it was a documentary about 9/11 footage and images would be shown, interviews are also commonly seen in documentaries footage and images are usually seen while an interview is taking place.

There are subjects that work better for documentaries than others; they work well in their own way in giving out the information. For example nature documentaries and human shock documentaries.

There are 5 main 'modes' of documentary;
-the first one is Expository - this will include a voice-over; usually from the film-maker themselves, real footage/images are often used from the past to give the viewer more information. The purpose of an expository documentary is to describe or analyse information by presenting a theme or concept An example of an expository documentary is war or historical documentaries.
-the next is Observatory - this is to observe a subject and is usually on location shooting. Direct sound recording is used usually with no voice-overs or interviews. The subject is usually unaware of the camera filming them. An example of an observatory documentary is a nature documentary.
-the Participatory/interactive documentary is probably the most commonly seen. The film-maker and crew interact with the subject and usually take part with what's going on. Shooting on location is usually shit with a handheld camera. There is also slight use of archived material. The film-maker is always seen and he/she usually provides the voice-over. An example of a participatory documentary is a Louis Theroux documentary.
-the Reflective documentary is produced to provoke a response with the audience. They show re-enactments with dramatic music to get an emotional response from the audience (sad, angry, scared).
An example of a reflective documentary is Crimewatch.
-the Performative documentary usually has the film-maker performing to the camera, they interact with the subject and sometimes is the subject. A performative documentary is shaped into the narrative of an investigation to be solved in some way to get a conclusion (usually made by the audience). It addresses the audience in an emotional way.
the subject matter is often to do with identity (gender or sexuality), an example of a perfomative documentary is The Grizzly Man.

Modes are interchangeable and will overlap codes and conventions. Boundaries of documentary are always changing.

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